Chapter 103
Kim Hyeong-Jun found himself torn between two difficult choices.
He couldn’t decide whether he should protect Seoul Forest, where his family was, or go to Haengdang-dong, where Lee Hyun-Deok’s family was.
He pictured the older man’s face. The memory of him laughing and slapping his forearm joyfully weighed heavily on his mind. He could feel the energy draining from his body and mind.
Loyalty or family?
He couldn’t bring himself to give up on either one.
He was rooted in place by his indecisiveness, unable to move in either direction. He vacillated back and forth, his mind full of anguish.
The zombies that filled Wangsinmi-ro stood motionless, now that their connection with their leader was irrevocably severed. However, there were about six hundred zombies still on their way to Seoul Forest. The only logical conclusion was that there was another enemy leader somewhere nearby.
On top of that, the zombies that were coming across Jangan-gyo were still fighting against his mutants. This meant that there were at least one or two more enemy leaders remaining in Seongsu-dong.
Kim Hyeong-Jun couldn’t think about leaving for Haengdang-dong while the enemy leaders were still here. He knew that the future hinged on whatever he decided to do at the moment.
Kim Hyeong-Jun bit his lower lip and frowned.
This merciless decision that had been thrust upon him suddenly was almost too much to bear.
Bang!
An ear-piercing explosion came from Kim Hyeong-Jun’s right. He crouched down reflexively and looked in that direction. Hwang Ji-Hye and her guards were advancing toward Seoul Forest steadily, their rifles braced against their shoulders.
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at Hwang Ji-Hye and shouted, “Hwang Ji-Hye!!”
She heard his voice and ordered the guards to provide cover for her as she made her way straight toward him.
When the two finally met, Kim Hyeong-Jun said urgently, “Hyun-Deok ahjussi’s family is in danger.”
“Pardon?”
“Haengdang-dong… Shelter Hae-Young is under attack!”
“I thought the gang members didn’t know the whereabouts of Shelter Hae-Young?”
“I think they’ve caught on. I have to head over to Haengdang-dong right now.”
Fear, nervousness and worry were painted all across his face.
Hwang Ji-Hye brushed her bangs to the side.
“Leave this area to us.”
“My family… Please protect them.”
“Everyone who is a part of Silence is family. And it’s my job to protect them.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded while biting his lips, and Hwang Ji-Hye smiled back at him.
“Don’t worry about this place. Get going. I’ll try to stop them somehow.”
“I’ll leave the mutants here just in case. I think the enemy leader is over at Jangan-gyo.”
"All right."
Hwang Ji-Hye took two grenades from her belt and handed them to Kim Hyeong-Jun.
Kim Hyeong-Jun accepted them with a nod. Hwang Ji-Hye then shouldered her rifle again and spoke.
“Get going.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun raced off toward Eungbong-gyo, giving orders to his underlings as he moved.
‘First and second company, follow me. We’re going to Haengdang-dong this instant!’
GRRR!!!
The underlings that were defending the outer walls of Shelter Silence immediately started moving toward Eungbong-gyo. Hwang Ji-Hye saw them move and shouted at the guards, “Advance toward the first line of defense! Give everything you’ve got!”
“Yes, group leader!”
The forty guards walked past the motionless, leaderless zombies and made their way toward the first defense line.
* * *
“Get the kids first!”
Lee Jeong-Uk's urgent voice echoed through the apartment complex.
All of Lee Hyun-Deok’s underlings that had been deployed to defend the shelter had been incapacitated by enemy forces.
Bang! Bang!
The teenagers and university students in charge of guarding Shelter Hae-Young fired nonstop at the invading zombies, the smoking barrels of their guns filling the air with the strong smell of gunpowder.
Choi Da-Hye, the principal, the elder, and Lee Jeong-Hyuk thrust their stainless-steel spears through the small openings in the lower sections of the walls, trying to impale the incoming zombies. Others were throwing Molotov cocktails at the invading horde, along with what few grenades remained. They were doing their best to mount a desperate defense of Shelter Hae-Young.
Han Seon-Hui led the children who had been playing in the playground to apartment 104. She hid them in an empty room on the top floor. As she tried to leave, the children grabbed at her clothes.
“Don’t go, Auntie!”
“Don’t leave us behind!”
“Mommy… Mommy!”
The children bawled, trying their utmost to make Han Seon-Hui stay with them. She calmed the children down as best as she could, and tried to calm her own emotions as well.
“It’s okay, everyone. Your uncles and older brothers and sisters will protect you. It’s going to be alright. It’s going to be alright.”
Despite her attempts to console them, the children didn’t stop crying. Then So-Yeon jumped up and shouted, "Don’t cry! My daddy’s going to save us!”
She clenched her two cute fists, admonishing the other children who were shedding tears. Han Seon-Hui looked at So-Yeon and nodded.
“So-Yeon is right. Uncle Hyun-Deok is going to save us. So don't worry. Don't cry."
“When? When is Uncle Hyun-Deok coming?”
“He’s not here! He left us behind!”
Some of the children, who had already been abandoned once before, couldn’t hide their fear of being abandoned again.
So-Yeon let out a scream.
“Daddy said he’d come back! He said he’d be back within ten nights!”
Bang! Bang!
The incessant sound of explosions outside only served to make the children more fearful.
.
Han Seon-Hui bit her lower lip and hugged the children. With her eyes, closed, she thought to herself,
'So-Yeon’s father… Please make it back soon.’
She continued to calm down the children, her own skinny arms trembling slightly. She was afraid as well.
Lee Jeong-Uk’s voice rang out from outside.
“Retreat!!! Abandon the wall!!!”
She got up and rushed to the balcony. The pile of zombie corpses in front of the wall was so high that it was about to flood over into the apartment complex at any minute.
The defenders of Shelter Hae-Young abandoned the complex wall and began to gather around the first floor of apartment 104. Lee Jeong-Uk stayed outside until everyone went inside, firing at the onrushing zombies.
“Everyone go up through the emergency exit!” he ordered. “We’ll mount our defense at the fourth-floor barricade!”
Lee Jeong-Hyuk, who was kneeling beside him and firing at the zombies as well, shouted in reply,
"There’s more of them than the barricade can handle! The barricade won’t be enough!”
“We have to hold them off somehow! Hold them off with everything you’ve got, until So-Yeon’s father arrives!”
Once everyone had made it to the emergency exit, the principal shouted down to the Lee brothers,
“You two, come in quickly!”
Lee Jeong-Uk threw a Molotov cocktail at the apartment entrance and broke for the emergency exit. The Lee brothers squeezed themselves into the emergency exit and made it up the stairs without a backward glance.
Cold sweat trickled down his brow.
Even though it wasn’t a hot day, he felt incredibly stifled, as if he was stuck in traffic after a long day’s work. At the same time, he felt chills running up his spine, almost as though the zombies that were chasing him would bite his head off any second.
He wanted to look back, but he was afraid that, when he did so, the zombies would overwhelm him and tear him apart.
When he finally made it to the fourth floor, he saw the defenders had taken up positions behind the barricade, ready to hold off the zombies.
Byun Hyeok-Jin and Woo Ga-In closed the barricade once the Lee brothers made it safely through, knowing that there was no one else coming up.
A moment later, the cries of the zombies trying to make it into the emergency exit echoed through the apartment.
GRRR!!!
GAAA!!! GRRR!!!
Woo Ga-In shuddered, and Byun Hyeok-Jin, who was next to her, squeezed her hand.
Choi Da-Hye stood right next to Lee Jeong-Hyuk, her crossbow aimed toward the stairs.
The wait felt like an eternity. Lee Jeong-Uk swallowed and raised his rifle, preparing himself to face the zombies.
When the zombies finally came into sight, Lee Jeong-Uk screamed at the top of his lungs, “Fire!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ting! Ting!
The sound of crossbows and rifles firing echoed inside the stairwell. The horrific cacophony overwhelmed the eardrums of the defenders, causing a dull, constant ringing in their ears.
As Lee Jeong-Uk took in the endless waves of zombies piling in, he shouted, "Grenades! Throw grenades!”
"We don’t have any!"
"We’re out!"
“We have Molotov cocktails!”
The constant ringing brought on by the non-stop firing made it impossible to tell who was shouting.
Lee Jeong-Uk gritted his teeth and shouted, “Throw a Molotov cocktail at the stairs!”
A Molotov cocktail arced over the barricade and landed on the stairs connecting the fourth and fifth floors, right on top of the zombies. There was the sound of shattering glass, and the smell of gasoline filled the stairs, along with a sudden, intense heat.
As the flames began to melt away at zombie flesh, the zombies threw themselves toward the barricade, swinging their arms violently.
The sharpened stakes along the barricade pierced through their flesh. The rough sound of their flesh grating against the solid barricade was terrifying. The zombies were throwing themselves against the barricade to their deaths.
GRRR!!!
A fierce zombie cry came from above the emergency exit.
Lee Jeong-Uk’s eyes went wide and he looked up.
A mysterious being was making its way down, hopping along the railings.
Lee Jeong-Uk quickly raised his rifle and aimed it at its head.
When the creature had made it about to the eighth floor, it threw itself into the hollow center of the stairwell.
Whoosh–
A pair of glowing red eyes hurtled down through the empty space.
Lee Jeong-Uk locked eyes with the mysterious being for a split second, and he realized that the reinforcements that he could count on had arrived.
“Hang in there! Kim Hyeong-Jun’s here!”
Kim Hyeong-Jun landed on the first floor and immediately tore into the zombies blocking the entrance.
* * *
Kim Hyeong-Jun left the defenders of Shelter Hae-Young to deal with the zombies that were clogging up the stairs while he took care of the zombies blocking the entrance.
The zombies that were racing toward the entrance were being funneled into the narrow entrance to the emergency exit, causing them to get all tangled up. Kim Hyeong-Jun cleared a path by crushing their faces and trampling on them.
‘First and second company, block the entrance to the apartment complex. Stop them from entering!'
After crossing Eungbong-gyo and reaching Haengdang 1-dong, his underlings had clashed with the foot soldiers of the Family that were surrounding Shelter Hae-Young.
Zombie howls echoed far and wide as Kim Hyeong-Jun battled the ones that had made it into the apartment complex. The continuous waves of zombies took their toll, and soon the flesh on his forearms, thighs, and sides were torn up.
The zombies were slowly wearing down his body, and he felt like his bones were about to snap at any minute.
'I need time to regenerate.'
He knew better than anyone that he needed to take a break to regenerate.
However, the zombie horde around him did not seem willing to give him one.
Despite being unable to feel pain, zombies would lose their capacity to fight once their bones broke, just like humans would, although the humans would feel pain as well.
Kim Hyeong-Jun gritted his teeth and focused on the current situation.
The physical abilities of these zombies were different from the zombies he had faced so far. He knew that, if there was an officer amongst these reinforcements, they had to be here.
At that moment, the zombies that had been trying to make their way into the first floor of apartment 104 stopped moving, and began to retreat slowly.
Kim Hyeong-Jun took several steps back as well, feeling uneasy at the sudden change in their behavior.
The zombies peered at Kim Hyeong-Jun, then slowly split left and right, parting like the Red Sea.
At the very end of the pathway that they had created, a man appeared, walking toward Him Hyeong-Jun with his hands stashed in his pockets.
The man tilted his head.
“So you’re the leader?” he asked Kim Hyeong-Jun.
Kim Hyeong-Jun swallowed and examined the man from head to toe. He didn’t even feel the need to turn the question back around.
He knew that this person was an officer.
The sixth officer looked at his underlings around him and gestured with his chin toward the apartment wall behind him.
At once, his underlings began to stream out of the apartment complex, their cries ringing in Kim Hyeong-Jun’s ears thanks to his heightened sense of hearing.
Kim Hyeong-Jun swallowed as he tried to still his trembling limbs.
The sixth officer gave Kim Hyeong-Jun a close look, then smirked.
“Regenerate.”
“...”
When Kim Hyeong-Jun furrowed his brow, the sixth captain smiled and continued, “What's the point of finishing off someone who’s already dying?”
Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned.
“Don’t regret this later,” he retorted angrily.
Gritting his teeth, he forced his blood to circulate more quickly.
He focused on his wounds, and new flesh began to grow and knit together as steam burst forth from his wounds and leaked out of his mouth.
The steam that enveloped his entire body soon turned into a thick fog, with a pair of red eyes glowing from deep within.
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